This is the third One Piece movie, theoretically taking place after Chopper joins the crew and before they go to Arabasta. They messed up the crew roster though; there should be Vivi in there too but they chose not to add her. Probably because she was so useless, lol. Just like all movies, it is a filler mission with a good budget and a simplistic plot. The story is just about the Strawhat Pirates getting to an island full of weird animals, were poachers are looking for some magical horns that will make them powerful and a token kid asks them to help out.

This is by far the most unimpressive premise of all the movies since there is absolutely nothing grand scaled going on here. Ok, supposed the bad guy is going to be super powerful if he finds the horns but even after he succeeds he is nothing before Luffy’s plot armour. Just imagine that although Oda takes ideas from these movies into the canon story later on, there was anything worth to tribute here, since everything is so damn simple in terms of themes. There are many islands with jungles and weird monsters in canon anyway.

In reality the whole movie is dedicated to the latest addition to the crew, Chopper (and his voice actress). It even tries to build a sort of drama around his personality where he finds a place to call home. There are many animals like himself there and he had the chance to leave the crew and stay there for a happy life. Ok, it is clear that he won’t in the end but supposed the drama is there to make us feel sad or something.

As unimpressive as the premise may be, the artwork makes up for it somehow by being extremely detailed and weird. I mean, damn, there are so many colours and weird animals in here to give you a seizure. The screen is constantly filled with a hundred things to look at and there is even a weird orchestra of villains that mesmerize you with their song. It all feels very quirky for a shounen adventure and I guess that is what makes this movie eye-catchy but otherwise boring for most of the target audience. The action is after all closer to crazy than cool and personally I didn’t like them at all. And the monsters felt like ugly aliens so I almost ended up hated them. So in all, it is not just another passable movie but also something you will most likely dislike in overall.

Oh and don’t miss the special short that comes with the movie. “Soccer King of Dreams” may only be 5 minutes long but has some really good jokes in it.

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